I picked up this book, the first of “The Second Foundation Trilogy, authorised by the Estate of Isaac Asimov” after enjoying Foundation and Earth. The author admits that he hasn’t tried to imitate the Asimov style – instead, his aim was to explore the character Hari Seldon and his early work on Psychohistory. I really enjoyed the passages concerning Seldon and his wife Dors – especially on the tourist planet when they were immersed into creatures called Pans. However, I couldn’t fathom the passages based on Joan of Arc and Voltaire and ended up skipping whole chapters, without noticeably losing the main thread. I wouldn’t rush to read another by Benford, but I’ll brave the next in this series at some point (it’s written by someone else!).